


Forger Fishing for Beginners

by Aviss



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7657915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviss/pseuds/Aviss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur falls in love with Eames slowly; an inch at a time, tiny gesture after tiny gesture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forger Fishing for Beginners

**Author's Note:**

> I had this as the prologue for a longer story I will not finish for many reasons, but this kind of prologue has always felt complete enough on its own to me. I forgot I never posted it here, though I did in tumblr, and I like to have all my stuff int he same place, so here it is.

Arthur falls in love with Eames slowly; an inch at a time, tiny gesture after tiny gesture.

It might begin the day Arthur walks into Dom’s living room and finds a heavily pregnant Mal resting on the couch with Eames playing with Phillipa, tossing her around while Mal laughs at their antics. Or maybe the day Eames unravels a difficult case with a well placed piece of insight. It could have been the time Arthur spilled a cup of hot tea on Eames’ favourite pink and orange shirt, an affront to fashion, and Eames pouted and then stripped in the middle of the warehouse, giving Arthur a good view of his sculpted torso. Or that time Eames and Arthur rescued a girl some thugs were trying to molest, giving them the beating they deserved and taking the scared girl home, Eames’ soothing voice enveloping them as he tried to reassure the girl.

It probably is a combination of all that and so many other things.

It’s so gradual that by the time Arthur notices his own feelings he’s in so deep he can’t see a way out.

It hits Arthur during a job in Italy, the team assembled for a bit of very lucrative corporate espionage. Eames is already in the warehouse they’re using when Arthur arrives in the morning. He’s sipping tea from an orange and green mug that clashes with everything in the warehouse. With everything in the world, probably.

Arthur eyes the monstrosity with an amused shake of his head, heading straight to the coffee machine and seeing four other mugs there. All of them are hideous, the colours glaringly clashing with each other. They also have a name written in gold letters on them.

Arthur’s is yellow and pink and it makes him feel like gouging his eyes out so he doesn’t have to look at it. He’s considering whether he should smash it against the floor or just shot it and avoid touching it altogether.

“Since we seem to be now a formal team,” Eames’ voice reaches him when Arthur’s in the process of aiming his gun at the thing. “I went ahead and got us a few knick-knacks for the place. I hope you like it, darling.”

It’s easy to hear the amusement in Eames’ tone, the way his tongue shapes the words and wraps them in his distinctive accent. It’s almost enough to send a shiver down Arthur’s spine, and he can feel the heat in the back of his neck where Eames’ eyes are fixed on him, awaiting his reaction.

Arthur holsters his gun again and grabs the coffee jar instead, pouring a good measure of the freshly made beverage and taking it to his desk.

The rest of the team arrives a bit later, their reactions to the ugly mugs amusing. Eames was right on one thing, and it wasn’t his choice of gifts. They are a team now. Ever since the Fisher job they have been working together, and it looks like the arrangement is going to be permanent.

Why would they look for a second rated team when they are the best?

It’s at the end of that job when Arthur realizes how screwed he really is. Everyone’s hideous mug has met with an accident during the couple of weeks they spent in Milan. Everyone’s but Arthur’s.

At the end of the job he takes the thing back to the hotel with him, wrapping it carefully and packing it with his clothes. Arthur is in the process of closing his suitcase when he realizes what he’s doing.

He doesn’t like the mug. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that it makes him wish he was colour-blind. And still he’s taking it with him, carefully ensuring it won’t break during the trip back to the States. He’s loath to part with it, and it’s only because it was a present from Eames.

It doesn’t take too long for Arthur to join the dots, and the picture he’s looking at is scary as hell.

Arthur sighs, closing his suitcase and lying on the bed with his eyes closed. If he had noticed before he might have done something to stop it. Remind himself that Eames, attractive as he might be, is the worst person on Earth to fall for.

It’s not that he doesn’t like Eames, he does. It’s difficult not to when Eames is brilliant and charming and devastatingly handsome. But Arthur knows him well enough; they have been working together, on and off, for years.

Eames is one of the best liars in the world, so good that he sometimes believes his own inventions. Eames doesn’t do feelings. Eames doesn’t do attachments. What Eames does is harmless flirting and one night stands, he keeps his walls up all the time and lets people see what he wants them to see.

Arthur has had a glimpse of what might be beneath the flashy exterior and charming persona Eames projects around, and that’s probably the reasons he’s in this predicament at present.

And well, Arthur can see two ways to fix the problem.

One is heartbreak. He can go on like this and wait for his feelings to subside, or even sleep with Eames and let him break his heart. This one looks painful and unsatisfying, either way it goes. It also looks long, because Arthur knows himself and to get to the point he’s in now it must have taken fucking years.

God only knows how long it would take for him to get over it.

The other way is simply making Eames fall for him. This one looks difficult and tiring, but the end result is better than heartbreak. It also looks like an exciting quest.

Arthur smiles in his empty hotel room and begins to plan.


End file.
